What do you get when you publish an unsolicited critique of a short story written and published by the OWNER of an indie publishing company? Published yourself apparently. I've been a member of the forum here for quite some time now, but only recently succeeded in getting my work published. I wanted to share with you all my path because it was a bit unusual and unexpected, at least to me. One day, while networking and visiting another author's page, I saw a call for 'Advance Copy Readers' for an anthology he was being published in. I signed up not even knowing what and 'Advanced Reader Copy' was, and soon received an email with an attached anthology collection of steampunk short stories and was asked to read the ebook and rate it (honestly) on amazon when the hard copy became available later in the month. I read the anthology collection and rather enjoyed it. Now, this anthology was a collection of new and upcoming authors. I saw a lot of small things that could have been improved in each story, so I took the opportunity to critique each short story individually and publish my critiques on my blog. This got noticed. The short story I most criticized in the collection turned out to be written by the book editor, and as I later discovered the co-executive of the company, under a pen name! All of the authors in the anthology took interest and we had a lot of really positive conversation on the blog. Eventually I was brave enough to ask the editor to look at some of my own writing. The editor kindly agreed, and while I didn't receive any feedback on the story, I was encouraged to compete for a place in the next anthology publication. I did so and was one of the eight fortunate writers selected! Now I have been included in an exclusive facebook group where all of the publisher's novel and anthology authors comment and discuss. This network alone is worth the effort I put into my contest entry. My short story is slated to be published in October by Xchyler Publishing under a yet to be determined title. I have a network of experienced authors and editors from which to learn and a huge boost to my ego that is pushing me to write more and more. Networking and critiquing are what did it for me, what will work for you? There's only one way to find out! Thanks for reading, ~Losthawken A.K.A - J. Aurel Guay
I laughed when i read this. Seriously, THAT had to be unexpected! How did you react when you found that you'd critiqued the editor?
Excellent, losthawken! I remember a sci fi short you posted here that I praised, saying you were good enough to be published. Glad you proved me right! Congratulations!
In some forums you use [noparse][imgw=800] or 700, 600 etc., number correlates to size [/imgw][/noparse] But it didn't work here. However, you can use the "attach image" in the menu bar to get this size which one can then link on to see the larger image: BTW, interesting story, congratulations!
Is there anything you don't know? You are seriously amazing Congrats Losthawken - great to see another forum member published well done and long may you continue
Thanks all! One thing I'd like to add. Wordpress is how the networking started for me, it's a great platform to set up a writing blog. There are a lot of aspiring authors and self publishers on there, but it's really just a place for networking and advertising. If you want critiques and help improving your writing then the WF Workshop is the better place. [MENTION=40233]Keitsumah[/MENTION] I was really surprised! But I didn't figure it out till we had had some good dialogue, everyone generally appreciated the criticisms because they were reasonable and good advertising. Though scrolling back through the facebook group after I was invited to join I could see that there were some entertaining comments about me [MENTION=19031]minstrel[/MENTION] to be truthful it was your comments on that story that inspired me to seriously try to get published. Thanks for the encouragment !
Hi, That is a truly amazing story. Congrats. Now I'm off to the mint to criticise some printers in the hope that they'll print my money! Cheers, Greg.
What a remarkable story, just rub some of that unusual turn of events my way Haha. All-in-all, congratulations!!
that sounds like something i'd do! Congrats anywhoo, thats something worth being proud of certainly, now, i need to finish writing my main piece
Thanks, and good luck to you all! My writing skills were greatly improved by the help and support I got on here, so you are in the right place. If/when you feel like you've reached a level where you could get published I would also encourage you to set up a blog and start networking. Let me know if you do and I'll follow your blog!
Definitely agree about here being the right place for improving writing skills - I'm so happy I've found this community. I have actually set up a blog, but it hardly gets any views and comments at all. I might just linger around here for a while, post a short story here and there and see how that works out. And read hell of a lot.
On equal footing with writing, its really the reading and critiquing of others that helps the most, I think. Reading amateur stories really helps you identify what works and doesn't, more so than reading professional works. Glad your hear, let me know if you post a story and I'll throw my comments at it.
